An 11-year-old student was injured after being struck by a school bus while crossing a roadway in Hurricane City, Utah, reported 2 KUTV.
First responders were dispatched Wednesday to a local intersection following reports of an auto–pedestrian collision, the Hurricane City Police Department said . Upon arrival, emergency crews located the injured child and immediately began medical treatment.
The student, whose name was not disclosed at this writing, was transported to St. George Regional Medical Center and is reportedly in stable condition. Police said the child may have sustained a head injury during the incident.
Witnesses told investigators that the student, who attends Hurricane Intermediate School, was running across 700 West when they were struck by a Washington County School District bus. Officials confirmed that several students were aboard the bus at the time, but no passengers or the bus driver were injured.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and police noted no additional details are available at this time.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the injured student and family at this time,” the Hurricane City Police Department said in a statement.
More information will be released as the investigation develops.
A demonstrator stands outside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wisc., in 2022 to commemorate missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Researchers have launched a new survey to determine the prevalence of brain injuries in Native survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, recalled a Native mother in her 30s who started having memory loss and other dementia-like symptoms.
The woman had suffered multiple blows to her head and falls at the hands of her husband over the years. He had wanted to disable her, to make it more difficult for her to keep her children if she tried to leave him, Echo-Hawk said.
Many Native women have traumatic brain injury symptoms as a direct result of abuse, Echo-Hawk said. Tribal health advocates and groups serving survivors have long been aware of the problem, she said, but there has been little national research documenting the extent of it.
“It’s a very difficult thing to see,” said Echo-Hawk, of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. “This is a pressing concern.”
The Urban Indian Health Institute, an Indigenous health research group, this month launched a first-of-its-kind national survey of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian women to determine the prevalence of brain injuries in Native survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. The goal is to illuminate the extent of the problem, guide clinicians, raise public awareness and direct resources.
A 2015 study in Arizona found a higher incidence of traumatic brain injuries in Native women in that state, but the new survey is the first national, Indigenous-led study of its kind, according to the institute.
It comes as domestic violence groups across the nation are struggling with federal funding delays caused by the government shutdown. As the impasse continues, the Trump administration has furloughed grant workers at the Office on Violence Against Women, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Abigail Echo-Hawk gives a presentation at the San Jose Police Department in California about cultural sensitivities in cases involving sexual assault, domestic violence and missing and murdered Indigenous people. (Photo courtesy of the Urban Indian Health Institute)
Traumatic brain injuries can cause memory loss, confusion and long-term behavioral changes and raise the risk of dementia. Some abusers intentionally inflict traumatic brain injuries on their victims because it doesn’t leave visible bruises, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.
The link between domestic violence and traumatic brain injuries has been documented in women generally, and the effects of such injuries have been studied in former football players and veterans. But research on Native communities is lacking. Even when victims show up in ERs, their cases can go underreported.
In a previous survey of survivors, some Native women reported broken teeth, evidence of blows to the head, Echo-Hawk said. But pushing and strangulation also can cause traumatic brain injuries.
Violence is a public health crisis among American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian women, who are overrepresented in intimate partner violence statistics. Fifty-five percent report experiencing intimate partner violence, and a disproportionate number of Native women and girls are murdered or go missing.
In a 2020 survey by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 44% of American Indian and Alaska Native women reported being raped in their lifetime.
“People are losing their children because of memory loss and dementia,” Echo-Hawk said. “When people are experiencing intimate partner violence, they end up in ERs. Their children suffer. The whole community suffers as a direct result. And the same with the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.”
Doctors and other hospital staff should receive more training on brain injuries and should know which communities are most likely to experience violence, said Nikki Cristobal, policy and research specialist for Pouhana ʻO Nā Wāhine, a nonprofit domestic violence resource center for Native Hawaiians.
Cristobal said one survivor told her clinicians hadn’t performed a brain scan or traumatic brain injury assessment on her, despite her ongoing psychological and cognitive symptoms. “It never occurred to anybody,” she said.
“We have to talk more about it,” said Cristobal, who worked with Echo-Hawk on developing the survey and is the principal investigator for the Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women, Girls and Mahu state task force.
Native communities, including Native Hawaiians, have endured long-term, intergenerational traumas during colonization and forced assimilation that can’t be ignored when targeting the disproportionate rates of violence, Cristobal said.
“It’s the undercurrent,” Cristobal said. “It’s the precursor.”
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
A school bus carrying members of a high school softball team overturned after striking a deer. Seven people were injured, including one adult in critical condition, reported AP News.
The crash reportedly occurred around 9 p.m. Sept. 8 on State Highway 152, roughly 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The bus was on route back from a scheduled game at Riverside Indian School in Anadarko when it hit a deer and flipped, ejecting some passengers.
A total of 17 people were on board at the time of the crash. Among the injured, four students were listed in stable condition as of Tuesday morning. One adult passenger, who was ejected during the rollover, remained in critical condition, Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesperson Sarah Stewart confirmed via the article.
Initial reports stated eight people were injured, but the Ohio Highway Patrol revised the number to seven. “Some students were taken from the scene by their parents before emergency responders arrived,” said Lt. Mark Southall.
“The scene was cleared around midnight,” Southall noted, adding that an investigation into the crash is ongoing. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is working alongside the National Transportation Safety Board to determine the exact cause.
Minco School District Superintendent Kevin Sims said only the school bus driver’s seat with a seatbelt. He also announced that classes were canceled Tuesday in response to the incident.
According to the news report, the crash has shaken the small town of Minco, population about 1,500. Minco First Baptist Church opened its sanctuary the evening the crash, offering a space for prayer and support. U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma expressed his condolences in a social media post, saying he and his wife, Cindy, “join all of Oklahoma in praying for our neighbors in Minco tonight.”
The softball team had reportedly been scheduled to play at Anadarko, about 35 miles southwest of Minco. Authorities continue to investigate the incident and have not released the names of those injured.
The first day of the new school year near Austin, Texas, started in a way no transportation professional or school official would ever want. Thankfully, everyone involved in the rollover crash on their way home have since been released from the hospital.
Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services confirmed a school bus rollover involving Leander Independent School District occurred Aug. 13 at 3:15 p.m. The school bus, which primarily transports students to and from Bagdad Elementary School, was transporting 42 children, leaving 12 needing transport to the hospital, including the school bus driver.
At the time of the crash, most students had not yet been dropped off.
The National Transportation Safety Board announced the day following the crash it is coordinating with the Texas Department of Public Safety on a safety investigation.
Sgt. Billy Ray, the public information officer for Texas DPS, noted the preliminary crash investigation indicates the school bus was traveling south on Nameless Road, which includes a slight curve. For an unknown reason as of this report, the school bus left the right side of the roadway and rolled over.
The 2024 Blue Bird school bus was equipped with lap/shoulder seatbelts, per state law. The state requires model-year 2018 or newer school buses to be equipped with the three-point seatbelts. School districts can opt out if the board determines that the cost exceeds the district’s budget and votes on it during a public meeting.
Information on whether students were wearing their lap/shoulder seatbelts was unknown at this time. But state law says students are required to wear the occupant restraints if the school bus is equipped with them.
Leander ISD Superintendent Bruce Gearing noted that information on the school bus driver was limited, but they are a “seasoned veteran bus driver.”
Gearing added that in addition to the deadly Central Texas floods last month, the Leander ISD family has been through a lot. “This tragedy is breaking our hearts,” he said. “We want each of the students and their families to know that our prayers are with them. Our thoughts are with them. And we will do everything in our power to support them.”
A student was stabbed shortly after exiting a school bus last week in Rossville, Maryland, reported Patch News.
According to the news report, Overlea High School administrators informed summer school families that the incident involved a student who had just gotten off bus number 183 on July 24 when the incident occurred.
Police responded to reports of a knife assault near the intersection of Franklin Square Drive and King Avenue. The victim, who was not identified at this writing, was transported to a hospital and is expected to recover.
Authorities have reportedly arrested a minor in connection with the stabbing. The suspect faces charges of first- and second-degree assault and was placed in the care of the Department of Juvenile Services.
In a message to families, Overlea leaders emphasized that student safety remains their highest priority and encouraged parents to reach out with any concerns.
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